SEC
Definition
The US Securities and Exchange Commission: the federal regulator for securities markets. It has civil enforcement powers, can seek disgorgement, civil penalties, injunctions, and officer bars. Criminal securities fraud referrals go to the Department of Justice.
- Full name
- US Securities and Exchange Commission
- Powers
- Civil enforcement: disgorgement, penalties, injunctions, officer bars
- Criminal referral
- Passed to the Department of Justice
- Jurisdiction
- United States securities markets
Common questions
Why does the SEC handle a case civilly while the DOJ prosecutes the same conduct criminally?+
The SEC's enforcement authority under securities law is limited to civil remedies such as fines and bars, so when evidence points to willful fraud that could support criminal charges, the SEC refers the matter to the Department of Justice, and the two agencies often run parallel investigations into the same underlying conduct.
What does an officer and director bar actually prevent someone from doing?+
An SEC-obtained bar prohibits the individual from serving as an officer or director of a public company for a set period or permanently, which is a targeted remedy aimed at keeping someone found to have committed securities fraud out of positions of corporate control, separate from any fine or disgorgement they also owe.
How does disgorgement differ from a civil penalty in an SEC enforcement action?+
Disgorgement requires the wrongdoer to give up ill-gotten gains, essentially returning profit that should never have been kept, while a civil penalty is an additional punitive fine on top of that, so a defendant can be ordered to pay both in the same case.
Related terms
- ED (Enforcement Directorate)
- India's Enforcement Directorate investigates economic offences under FEMA and the PMLA 2002. Its primary tools are property attachment under PMLA and prosecution...
- Parallel Proceedings
- Simultaneous civil and criminal proceedings arising from the same underlying facts, often before different tribunals. A company may face a civil SEC...
- PMLA Attachment
- Under India's Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002, the ED can provisionally attach property believed to be proceeds of crime before any...
- SFIO
- Serious Fraud Investigation Office: a statutory body under India's Ministry of Corporate Affairs that investigates corporate frauds under the Companies Act 2013....
- SFO
- The UK Serious Fraud Office: a department of the Crown that both investigates and prosecutes serious and complex fraud, bribery, and corruption....